Cold Comfort

January 26, 1986|By Lisanne Renner

Canadians come to Florida to escape the cold, but emotionally they just can't leave behind the Great White North. To keep in touch with their homeland, about 5,000 Canadians subscribe to Canada News, a weekly tabloid published in Auburndale, west of Orlando.

''Informing Residents and Vacationing Canadians in Southern Sunbelt Regions'' is the motto on its front-page banner. Stories are sent to Canada News by its parent paper, the St. Catharines Standard in Ontario. Articles include news about Canadian taxes, politics, crime, businesses, sports, lottery wins and stock market closings. From the Florida front there is chitchat about the activities of Canadian organizations having fun in the sun.

''What I like to do is give readers a nice big picture of a Canada snowstorm because they love it,'' said Bill Leeder, who publishes Canada News in his garage. ''They can call home to their children and grandchildren in Canada and say, 'Ha, ha, ha.' They love it. I play up those photos real big.'' For three years Leeder, 51, and his wife Sally have been putting out the paper, which averages 24 pages a week. Before that, they bought the weekly Winter Haven Herald, which closed in 1979. Leeder spent 34 years publishing papers in Canada before retiring to Florida, a mecca to more than 1.2 million Canadians who are either permanent or vacationing residents.

Canada News is published only from Nov. 1 to April 30 each year, which leaves Leeder plenty of time to go fishing and otherwise enjoy his retirement.